Lamb Souva w/ beet-leaf salad

Lamb may be a spring fling but I like to savour outdoor cooking for as long as possible, if the sun is out why not! This hearty meal makes for an awesome alternative to a sunday roast and takes half the time to prepare, cooked simply on an open grill and all of the elements can be prepared a day before.

I’ve used the leafy end of my beetroot to create a simple salad full of vitamin C and huge range of other minerals that would normally just be discarded into the compost, that is the beauty of buying seasonal root vegetables in full-form! The same goes for carrot tops, they make a great simple pesto base or a lite garnish for a piece of grilled fish.

2. In a bowl place the finely slice red onion and radish. Then mix in a handful of currents with the oregano, mint and parsley. Pour over enough white wine vinegar to cover the onion mixture lightly, about 2-3tbs. Season to taste, leave to cure until your ready to serve with the beetroot leaves mixed through and a splash of good extra-virgin olive oil. The vinegar will work to bring out the sweetness in the onions and the currents will absorb any excess moisture making them plump and delicious.

3. The tzatziki? Easy, just mix all of the ingredients together and season to taste. You might choose to add more lemon juice to make a thinner dip if you like, but the key is to make sure you squeeze all the water out of the grated cucumber otherwise you will end up with something resembling yogurt-water…not ideal.

4. Now all you need to do is thread a piece of zucchini followed by lamb pieces onto your metal skewers, simply divide the lamb evenly between the skewers. Preheat your grill, get it steaming hot then grill the lamb skewers for about 2 min each side (follow the cheat-sheet below for how to cook the lamb if you’re not confident).

‘Cooking red meat, Medium for Dummies‘, goes as follows:

– Only ever cook red meat on each side once. In this case you could turn the skewers onto all 4 sides if you were being pedantic, but for a standard steak only once each side. ‘ one flip!

– Place your beef/lamb onto a hot grill, watch for the meaty juices ( a light red wine colour) to rise to the top of the cooking meat. At this stage enough heat has gone through the other side of the steak to make it perfect for turning. Flip. Cook on the other side until, once again, the meaty juices start to rise to the surface. Remove from the hot grill and rest on a wooden board, preferably covered (aka foil), for 1 minute before serving/carving. This is a great way to learn how to cook a really good steak, it’s simple and perhaps not the most professional of methods – but it is a good platform to start from.

– Always. ALWAYS Preheat your grill, as hot as you can get it. I turn my grill on 5 min before I cook red meat, this also help to burn away muck from the grill and I would almost always scour the grill once hot – it just works better.

5. Serve lamb skewer with the beet-leaf salad, tzatziki and my potato flatbreads! Garnish with a decent splash of extra-virgin olive oil and a whack of pomegranate seeds.

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